Left To Wreck
by allthatsleftbehind
Summary: One shot based on a Tumblr prompt in which Regina & Emma fight and their true feelings are revealed in front of everyone. Emma brought Marian back, but was it really such a bad thing?


Emma hadn't meant it, and Regina knew she hadn't, but that didn't make it any easier to accept. She had trusted the Saviour despite her better judgment, and this is how she had been repaid: her one small chance at happiness shattered by a woman who should have been long dead, miraculously back to reclaim a life that could have been Regina's. A life with Robin. Regina's blood boiled with a rage that felt extreme even to her, the pit of her stomach churning with a dread she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"YOU did this?" she spat at Emma, eyebrows raised. More than angry, she was grief-stricken at the betrayal, and Emma's pitiful, helpless look only made that feeling worse.

Regina turned to walk out of Granny's, only to have Emma's palm wrapping around her forearm, pulling her back. She snatched her arm from Emma's grip, backing away as if she'd touched hot coals.

"Don't you dare touch me," she hissed, her voice louder than she intended.

"Come on, Regina. Don't go." Emma's eyes were pleading, full of desperation to explain herself, but Regina knew there was no explanation at all. Nothing that could make this better in any way.

"Why should I stay, Miss Swan? Do you have another nightmare from my past to roll out? Is my life not disastrous enough for you?" Her glare was ice cold and it chilled Emma to the core in ways she'd never experienced.

"I didn't know," Emma said quietly, looking down at the floor with shame. "I didn't think…"

Regina cut her off, her tone biting. "No, you didn't think, Sheriff. Isn't that always the problem with you? The Savior never thinks - no, that would be too much to ask. She just jumps right in, completely ignorant of any damage she might be causing. What does it matter? It's not YOUR life that's being destroyed, after all."

"That isn't fair!" Emma protested, growing impatient. It wasn't her fault. Well, it was her fault, but not purposely so. She had no way of knowing that the woman she saved from the Evil Queen's dungeons was Marian, the very wife of the man that was supposed to be Regina's soulmate. What were the chances? It was bad luck — _incredibly_ bad luck, she could admit — but she thought after everything they'd been through, Regina could have forgiven her, or at least given her a chance.

"Life isn't fair, Miss Swan," Regina said, turning again to walk out of Granny's.

Emma pulled her back again, this time grabbing her roughly and spinning Regina to face her with purpose. "No, it isn't, Regina, but for fuck's sake, I said I was sorry!"

Regina looked incredulous, both at Emma's sudden change in tone and at the fact that she truly believed a feeble apology would be enough. The strange thing was, the more she looked at Emma and her bright green eyes, alive with something wild and unexplored, the more she found herself wanting to back down, to think rationally, to see Emma's side. She hated this weakness and didn't understand it. No one had this power over her. No one had ANY power over her, except maybe her son, and now here was his birth mother simultaneously pleading for forgiveness and angrily demanding it and Regina couldn't get her head around any of it.

"Yes, you have said you're sorry," Regina responded dryly, not sure where she was going with things.

"So accept my apology," Emma sighed. She was aware that everyone in Granny's was staring at them; the whole place was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"And what if I don't?"

Regina was challenging her, testing her resolve, but her own was weakening and the tone of their conversation had changed. Both women felt themselves more het up, high strung with an anxiety they couldn't quite place, but neither of them could stop it.

"Jesus, Regina, will you just _forgive me_?" Emma felt frantic and panic-stricken, unsure of what she could do or say to get through to the woman before her. All she'd wanted was to get back to Henry, and yes, fine, to Regina. She had been trying to help the brunette, and it had gotten her nowhere.

"Why does it matter to you so much if I do?" Regina's eyebrow was raised, genuinely confused. When they'd fought in the past, Emma always made some snappy comeback and let her leave without another word. They were fine ignoring each other for days, weeks, whatever it took. But this felt different. It made Regina's breath hitch in her chest, and she swallowed hard in an attempt to make it go away.

Emma lolled her tongue around her mouth, unsure how to respond. She knew what she wanted to say: that it mattered because Regina mattered, more than she could know. That it mattered because maybe Marian wasn't important, maybe Robin wasn't important, but maybe Regina and Emma could be important _together_. She felt dumbstruck, however, and could say nothing, her mouth bobbing open and closed like a fish out of water.

Regina furrowed her brow, her frustration growing again. "That's what I thought. Stay out of my life, Miss Swan… though I doubt there's much of it left to wreck." At this, she turned on her heel and opened the door to Granny's, stepping out into the cool night air.

"Because I care about you," she heard loudly behind her. Emma was still standing inside, arms at her side and her hands curled into fists. She looked determined, yet shocked at what she'd just said aloud. The diner went deathly silent again, save for a lone whistle that came from one of the corner booths. Emma didn't avert her gaze to look back and see who it was, but she was pretty certain she recognized Leroy's voice.

Regina stepped one foot back towards her, her stomach in knots. What had Emma just said? What had it even meant? There was no way that the Savior cared for her like that. They had barely even started getting along, let alone… she shook the thought from her head.

"You've got a funny way of showing it. Is this your idea of some kind of cruel joke? Ruin my life and then mock me for it?" She felt even more hurt than before. Of all the things Emma could have said, teasing her this way was cruel, was beyond anything she deserved, and her rage flared within her.

"It's not a joke, Regina," Emma said, stepping closer. Her heart was going a million miles an hour and she wasn't even sure what she was saying, but she had to say it. She didn't know why she needed to say it. Hell, she didn't even know why she felt the way she did, but looking at Regina, her brown eyes alight with a million undiscovered thoughts and feelings and many that she recognised immediately, Emma knew what she was saying was true.

"It's not a joke," she repeated. She looked heavily at the other woman, trying to convey without words every single thing within herself. Emma stepped closer to Regina, who was suddenly becoming more and more aware of the fact that they had an audience - one which was far too engaged with the dramatic scene playing out before them. And yet, she found she couldn't care. Emma's gaze was so focused, so heartfelt, that she felt her whole world crumbling and being rebuilt with every second that passed beneath it.

"What – I – But you –" Regina, for once, was speechless, and the reality made the corner of Emma's lip turn up in a smirk. She studied Emma's face for any sign of trickery, of malice, and found none. Instead, she found she was seeing the blonde fully for the first time in her entirety, and she liked what was in front of her eyes, even if she'd never admit it to anyone else, or even to herself.

"Really?" she finally settled on. She looked down at her hands nervously, noticing they were shaking. It wasn't like her to be shy, to feel so completely disarmed, and yet she was. Seeing the Queen like this only made Emma more resolute in her feelings, and had they not been standing in the middle of a crowded room, she would have kissed her right then and there.

Instead, Emma moved closer to Regina, lifting her chin so that their eyes met. They searched one another wordlessly, Regina's mouth falling slack with the intensity of feeling that passed between them without effort. Part of Regina began to wonder if what Emma had done to her by bringing Marian back wasn't something the blonde had done _for_ her, albeit without realising at the time. Perhaps the slight was actually a gift, though it made no logical sense. Looking at Emma, however, Regina couldn't make sense of anything at all, let alone the man who was supposed to have been her soulmate more than 30 years ago.

Then Emma did something unexpected: she pulled Regina close into a complete and enveloping embrace, her palms flat against the length of the brunette's spine. She gripped onto her tightly, like the world was ending, and Regina found herself reciprocating the move instinctually, her arms moving around Emma's neck and locking there. Emma moved her mouth to Regina's ear, whispering quietly so the rest of the diners couldn't hear.

"Really," she said finally, breathily. Regina sighed and closed her eyes, pressing herself closer to Emma and holding on for dear life.


End file.
